Backyard Starship

[grampster]

If you like sci fi adventures with a bit of humor tossed in, check out the Backyard Starship series.  If you have the Amazon Prime Kindle ten buck a month book thingy, even better as they are free on that platform.

A grandson computer wonk inherits his grampa's farm and discovers an invisible starship in the barn.  The starship is run by an AI with a sense of humor and also in inhabited by a mechanical AI warbird who is also a bit mouthy.  Seems grampa was an interstellar Peacemaker.   A guardian of the galaxy adventure begins to play out.  I'm on book 5 now.  Really fun read and well written etc etc.

[230RN]

Seems like a unique premise.  Not that I've read any "hard" science fiction since it drifted into "science" fantasy, pfui, ick, blech.

So does he become the default / hereditary Sheriff of "his" galaxy?  Does he forbid guns in his galaxy's bars and saloons?

Or is he like the UN "Peacekeepers" and gets to wear a blue helmet?

[Ben]

I've seen Backyard Starship recommended to me a lot on Amazon, mostly because of similar reading I do, I think. I might have to check it out.  I recently read the Junkyard Starship series, where worn down old Vietnam vets get intelligent alien parasites that rejuvenate them, and off they go on interstellar adventures. They get 20 year old bodies, but keep their curmudgeonly old minds. Fun reading.

[HankB]

This reminds me just a little bit of the 1963 story "Waystation" by Clifford D. Simak.     

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_Station_(novel)

In this case it's not a starship but a galactic teleportation hub, with a US Civil War veteran recruited to manage it. It's been a long time since I read this novel, but without giving away too much of the story, one (very minor) plot element is that the caretaker of the waystation is asked by his  alien boss what he likes to do for recreation, and he says he likes to shoot; so they build him what amounts to a holodeck and he gets to hunt - and shoot - alien critters.

Oh, and if such a thing were real, I for one would not want to make use of the teleporter.

[Brad Johnson]

How about just building your own starship from scrap? Anyone but me remember Salvage 1?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvage_1

Brad

[MechAg94]

Does Backyard Starship involve aliens infiltrating leadership positions on Earth?  I read something similar before, but I can't remember if it is the same book.


An odd SciFi book I have read recently is The Spark by David Drake.  Knights and warriors with SciFi weapons and a sort of technomagic along monsters and aliens.  It is a good read which is normal for David Drake books.

[HankB]

. . . An odd SciFi book I have read recently is The Spark by David Drake.  Knights and warriors with SciFi weapons and a sort of technomagic along monsters and aliens.  It is a good read which is normal for David Drake books.

You might like The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Knights and warriors from medieval England encounter a warlike and belligerent alien race . . . and things don't go quite like the aliens expected.

[230RN]

Heh.

Ben:

" They get 20 year old bodies, but keep their curmudgeonly old minds. Fun reading."

A complementary pairing of attribures.

Heh.

Scanning the above recommendations, I find a couple of them interesting.

[MechAg94]

You might like The High Crusade by Poul Anderson. Knights and warriors from medieval England encounter a warlike and belligerent alien race . . . and things don't go quite like the aliens expected.

I will have to look for that.  David Drake has a few books/stories about Earth soldiers fighting for aliens (Roman Legion and an English army with cavalry and long bows).  I think he also had a story about a Roman big game hunter tracking a dangerous alien in Rome. 

[grampster]

"Does Backyard Starship involve aliens infiltrating leadership positions on Earth?  I read something similar before, but I can't remember if it is the same book."

I'm on book 6 and not so far.  Earth is pretty much left alone and ignorant.  I think I read some Junkyard Starship awhile back. I'll have to check that out.

He becomes a part of Galactic Peacekeepers that his grandfather was a part of.  The Peacemakers are not always much different than the bad guys as the series unfolds.  The main character is a straight arrow and he gets involved in all sorts of stuff.  Hard to explain except I find it a good series to read and it's interspersed with a fair amount of humor as he interacts with his snarky War Bird AI and his AI who runs the ship along with the crew as it increases as the stories unfold.

[MechAg94]

I think Junkyard Starship is the one I read, but I didn't see it on my Amazon history so I will have to dig through my paperbacks if I want to find it.  It wasn't terrible, but not the best either.

[Ben]

I think Junkyard Starship is the one I read, but I didn't see it on my Amazon history so I will have to dig through my paperbacks if I want to find it.  It wasn't terrible, but not the best either.

The first Junkyard book is "Junkyard Pirate". Certainly it's far from the best scifi/military scifi out there, but it's probably right in the meaty middle of the "anybody can publish" Amazon authors.   

https://www.amazon.com/Junkyard-Pirate-Jamie-McFarlane-ebook/dp/B07ZTNXCDD/

[MechAg94]

The first Junkyard book is "Junkyard Pirate". Certainly it's far from the best scifi/military scifi out there, but it's probably right in the meaty middle of the "anybody can publish" Amazon authors.   

https://www.amazon.com/Junkyard-Pirate-Jamie-McFarlane-ebook/dp/B07ZTNXCDD/

That was not it.  I will have to think on what book it was.